Let's see, he was "handed a 7-0 lead. In reality, the NYG had the ball 3 times before the Steelers scored that TD.

He immediately allowed the NYG to score the tying TD. In reality, the refs allowed that TD with a phantom PI call and then a personal foul against Clark that was totally bogus.

It was the storm! Yes, the storm caused the NYG offense to sputter. They had no power; they didn't eat or sleep all week. They had no practices and no game plan. They had to walk 5 miles to get to the stadium, carrying their gear.

The moral of the story is that once Mill decides a player or coach is inept, he will NEVER give them credit for having a good game.

I usually agree with you Mill when it comes to Dick but the refs gave the first touchdown to NY. The bogus PI and the no where near the head call on third down resulted in the touchdown, not the French army retreat this time. Appreciate your weekly write up and love the tally of all the hurting vaginas

"Major thank-you's go out to the NFL, which canceled all NFL games 5 days after 9-11 but refused to cancel a game in which the Giants' surrounding metropolitan area was a federally-declared disaster area, flooded and without power the past several days. Thank you, Roger Goodell. Perhaps LeBeau should send flowers to Mr. Goodell at his earliest opportunity. B"

This is so sour grapes and so vindictive that it is intolerable. Often you are spot on with Dick. This is evidence that objectivity has been thrown out the window. I don't even know how to respond. Just really terrible.

Agree completely with SteelThatDon'tRust, and JimPgh1. I'm not a big fan of LeBeau anymore either, and I do hope he hangs it up at season's end. But you don't have to be a fan of the guy to simply acknowledge that his defense played a great game against a loaded offense and the defending SB champs yesterday. I'm new to this forum, but have been reading this site for years. Although I often agree w/ Mill on LeBeau, I figured he wouldn't give him his due for yesterday, and thought I could count on some kind of negative spin here, but using the storm???

I also would have loved to read this today if that had been Woodley that tried to scoop and score Manning's 4th qurarter fumble and had not come up with it like Harrison did. Pretty sure that would have been mentioned.

I don't think I've ever read an article where the word 'vagina' was used five times.

We agree that Dick LeBeau probably gets more credit as a defensive wizard over the course of his career than he richly deserves. Not going to argue that point. But over the last three games (all wins), the Steeler defense has been hotter than shit defending the pass, and those are the facts:

There's something clearly at work here, and it's not just Ike Taylor playing better or more trust bestowed upon Keenan Lewis. I'm dying for someone to offer up a more in-depth look at what he actually does with his coverage -- but no one -- not you, not Football Outsiders, not Pro Football Focus, or access to the "All 22" coaches tape on NFL.com have honestly provided a soup-to-nuts opinion on this. Two weeks ago it was bracket coverage on A.J. Green, who did nothing against Ike Taylor, but had no problem making Champ Bailey look silly yesterday. Last week it was all the drops by the Redskins receivers. This week Eli wasn't "in sync" with his receivers -- the same receiving corps that propelled them to Super Bowl champs last year? Huh?

My challenge to you, is to provide that in-depth breakdown. It's easy to provide insight based on the final results -- whether or not LeBeau pissed away a fourth quarter lead or kept it -- but I'm dying for someone to break down individual plays, schemes, routes, disguises -- in a way that once and for all, explains clearly what he's trying to do, that explains clearly what his players are and aren't doing, if the blame is shared by coach and player or all on coach or all on player, etc. There's so many resources available now to do this.

Also FYI -- I live in New Jersey. Don't blame the hurricane for the Giants "lack of preparation". The Giants all reported to work since Wednesday and were able to put in full practices and walkthroughs leading up to the storm.

I think the O-line played a lot better than you give them credit for. This is the first game in quite a while where it felt like the O-line and defense won the game for us. I haven't seen 3 solid performances in a row from the O-line in a long, long time. Everyone keeps lobbing all the credit on the RB's (which is fair) but the majority of the credit needs to go to the line. Could our line actually be a strength and not a weakness?

The reason Manning was scattershot was not the storm, it was the coverages he was seeing. Lewis needs to learn how to adjust his body as the ball is in the air, but I like how he seems to always stay close to his receiver. I thought the secondary played one of their best games of the season.

Major props to this team for beating the Giants, the refs, and the league office.

SoCal Stiller wrote:I think the O-line played a lot better than you give them credit for. This is the first game in quite a while where it felt like the O-line and defense won the game for us. I haven't seen 3 solid performances in a row from the O-line in a long, long time. Everyone keeps lobbing all the credit on the RB's (which is fair) but the majority of the credit needs to go to the line. Could our line actually be a strength and not a weakness?

I was thinking the same thing this morning, SoCal. I began to wonder if our O-Line thinking, from head office to GM, to drafting, to coaching, has been "stuck', for lack of a better word, in the 3 yds and a cloud of dust mentality despite our not having a back to run that way. Mendenhall's style is infuriating enough, but combine it with a BIG and somewhat slow and immobile O-Line and it's a recipe for disaster. However, these big, slow guys have done a terrific job, IMO, the last three weeks at simple starightforward run blocking when Dwyer, and now Redman, are lined up behind Ben and running pretty vanilla off-tackle and wham-type schemes. This has also resulted in, combined with the "dink'n'dunk", better pass protection for Ben, it would seem. To quote Ben, "Who's laughin' now, O-Line?" Great win.

Just wanted to say thanks, Mill, for the analysis and compilation. Your work is greatly appreciated. However, I respectfully disagree with a couple of points:

1) You said, "Dick was handed a 7-0 led, but as is the norm, immediately gave up the lead as fast as a French army in retreat, allowing an 8-play, 72 yard march for the tying TD." Nothing could be further from the truth. You even conceded that the 41 yd PI penalty on Lewis was a phantom and not only shouldn't have been called, but was actually perfect coverage. Despite getting robbed by that, the defense stiffened and stopped the Jints on three consecutive attempts from inside the five to force a FG attempt. Another REEEDICULOUS call on Clark in the EZ is the only thing that extended the drive, not ineffective D.

Moreover, another bad call (two on one play if you count the uncalled block in the back on Miller) resulted in 7 more points for NY on a pretty clear example of the tuck rule. I personally think that the tuck rule is bullshit, but it's the rule and should have been enforced, even if it didn't benefit Tom Brady in this instance. Outside of those two TD's, the Super Bowl champs never sniffed the EZ again.

2) You said, "NY ran all of 46 offensive plays, which might be the lowest # in the entire league this season and certainly the fewest the G-Men have run in a game all season." Some credit has to be given to Haley and the offense (particularly the O-Line), as the Steelers had something to do with that extraordinarily low number. Namely, running 65 plays of their own, and controlling the clock for better than 35-25.

I actually thought this was the most complete game, in all phases, we have played all year and it was against a playoff caliber opponent, with a tested 4th-quarter-comeback QB. The fact that the Stillers had to overcome some adversity, bias, and unfairness to get there only made it that much sweeter to me.

So JUST because I have really no expectations of our D being able to keep the other team off the field in the last 5 minutes of ANY game, that does NOT mean that DLB is not capable of doing things on a consistent basis with this group that impresses massively.

So, as far as last night's game: our D played championship football. Can they keep it up? >>I<< do NOT think so. What we need to see is consistent ability to play like that all throughout the regular season. And if our scheme is crap, and the Dline is fat and slow, and LBs can't cover or rush the passer, or the corners can't cover/get INTs when it really counts - (Ravens, playoffs...) then last nights game is/was absolutely fantastic (over)achievement by this group.

Now, noone mentions the possibility that Eli was "mentally" unprepared for the game, or that all of them were NOT ready, but the storm probably affected them in one way or another.

In any way - if THIS is the real Steelers of 2012/13 season - I am loving it. Would I like to see someone OTHER then DLB as our DC - absolutely - just like i hated BCowher after 10th year, and just like I disliked Bruce AiRmeoutIANS, I'd like to see a new(er) DC who would design the Defense around the talent we actually HAVE NOW!

Coke Oven wrote:"I don't think I've ever read an article where the word 'vagina' was used five times. "

Keep up the good work, Mill. Next time use "vagina" 7 times. The sensitive forum queers pop out of the woodwork and act offended when you use that word. Hooyah!

Cook Oven I don't think that the quality of work is summarized by the use of the word Vagina.

I expect everybody on this site to be male... So for me it doesn't bother. But Zapunto points out some intriguing aspects. You may agree or not. But he brings quality also.

The quality that brought me on this site several years ago. I think that the site should take a defined path now. You either improve the quality of the analysis ( which I believe several of us have been expecting ) or you continue insulting independently from the result.

While I agree with some of the results I have found myself asking the following :

How is it possible that the starter ( or coach or whoever is in charge ) is an idiot when is in charge ? And if the so long awaited back up takes is in place ( always too late in Mill's view ) after a couple of weeks he becomes an idiot also ?

That should be the matter.

I think it's ok to highlight the mistakes.

But we should highlight the great performance a little more.

Just look at what the steelers have done in the last 10 years or so. Top tier team without a doubt.

If Colbert only makes mistakes... and the same applies to tomlin, lebeau, benroeht, etc. etc. How is it possible that we have won 2 SB and been to another one ? How is it possible that we can count the losing seasons on one hand ? That we can count a better performing team on one hand ( and in some cases put a HUGE asterisk like the Cheatriots )?

I would only like to make questions to Mill.

Why have been improving so much in the running game ? How come the OLine ( and Colon particularly ) are playing better in the last couple of weeks ?

Coke Oven wrote:"I don't think I've ever read an article where the word 'vagina' was used five times. "

Keep up the good work, Mill. Next time use "vagina" 7 times. The sensitive forum queers pop out of the woodwork and act offended when you use that word. Hooyah!

Cook Oven I don't think that the quality of work is summarized by the use of the word Vagina.

I expect everybody on this site to be male... So for me it doesn't bother. But Zapunto points out some intriguing aspects. You may agree or not. But he brings quality also.

The quality that brought me on this site several years ago. I think that the site should take a defined path now. You either improve the quality of the analysis ( which I believe several of us have been expecting ) or you continue insulting independently from the result.

While I agree with some of the results I have found myself asking the following :

How is it possible that the starter ( or coach or whoever is in charge ) is an idiot when is in charge ? And if the so long awaited back up takes is in place ( always too late in Mill's view ) after a couple of weeks he becomes an idiot also ?

That should be the matter.

I think it's ok to highlight the mistakes.

But we should highlight the great performance a little more.

Just look at what the steelers have done in the last 10 years or so. Top tier team without a doubt.

If Colbert only makes mistakes... and the same applies to tomlin, lebeau, benroeht, etc. etc. How is it possible that we have won 2 SB and been to another one ? How is it possible that we can count the losing seasons on one hand ? That we can count a better performing team on one hand ( and in some cases put a HUGE asterisk like the Cheatriots )?

I would only like to make questions to Mill.

Why have been improving so much in the running game ? How come the OLine ( and Colon particularly ) are playing better in the last couple of weeks ?